Engine overhaul

The first impression of our engine

Recently we tried taking the engine apart. On a sunday afternoon, we wanted to take a look inside, together with a couple of friends. Our gentle aproach was insufficient to get the cylinderhead of, so we stripped the engine while waiting for thw oil to penetrate through the gasket. To give the oil some time, the starter engine, oil pump, oil filter, coolant pump and timing chain were removed, as well as the manifold and carburetors.

The camshafts appear to be "as good as new". The wear at he cams is neglgible and the toothed wheel driven by the timing chain also looks great. After all this time stretching, the cylinderhead still didn't come of, so we're going to have to try again another time.

Thanks Matthijs & Ilja for the help!

All ideas are more than welcome at our forum!

Cylinderhead: 1 inch higher

Good and bad news about the cylinderhead, it's not off, but it is floating. A friend, who is a big Alfa fan, brought his original Alfa tool. In the contrary of all other attempts, this time we did have result. With the tool, our friend was able to raise the head about an inch. Too bad we weren't able to raise it higher, this was the limit of the tool. We're very happy with he result, and a lot of oil and time will take the head off.

This inch provides space for spraying oil more directly onto the bolts, and now we're also able to place wedges. We'll have another look one of these days, after we have found a set of apropriate wedges.

Thanks for the help!

Cylinderhead Lift Off!

The cylinderhead is off! Finally!

We’ve done a couple of serious attempts in December, putting a lot of effort in it, an energy consuming task, but time and oil were the key to success, apparently. And again some power.

Some advanced readers may notice the special tool, the original Alfa Romeo Cylinderhead Removal tool, in the picture above, laying in front of the engine. This tool is awesome, simple, and absolutely perfect for the job. Slowly but surely pulling the head off by leaning on the protruding screw thread of the big block. Because this is handwork, you can easily control the process, and make sure the head remains horizontally during the removal.

The tool has a limited range though. The head is lifted of the engine block, but after an inch or two, the thread doesn’t protrude any more. As you can see in the picture above, the bolts sticking out of the cylinderhead are the valve cover bolts. That’s where we had to leave in December, stuck halfway.

We gave oil a couple of weeks to soak it’s way down, because my brother and I had exams. With a wooden wedge and supporting beam on the other end, we we’re able to remove the cylinderhead, switching sides over and over again to lift it horizontally.

After degreasing the head, it looked like the picture in the middle. Even my mother was very enthusiastic to see the result, now that it is clean. And I agree, I just love the looks of it!

We got a lot of help of our friend Sander, who helped us out with the cylinderhead, but also painted and assembled the starter engine, completing it’s revision. It looks really neat, the paintjob is flawless, and the few not painted bolts are rust protected with a thin film of Vaseline.

Thanks Sander!

Taking the engine apart

Last sunday, we took apart the engine. With the help of Ilja and Hairo we took of the oil pan, got out the crankshaft and pistons.
Crankshaft bearings look alright, cilinder busses are looking great ! I can barely feel the wear from the pistonrings, so we´re seriously considering just putting the whole thing back together without honing and oversized stuff. If you guys have advice - feel free to post it on the forum.

There was a 4 cm thick layer of crap between the cylinder busses. We got that out with the high water pressure. It looks like remainder of coolant or something, although that area normally should only contain oil. This week we want to continue working on the engine - more pics will follow ! Thanks again for the help guys.

Cleaning the engine block

Now that the engine is fully dismantled, we we're able to polish the aluminium. In my opinion, the result looks great. If you have tips or tricks for the cleaning, let us know via the forum. The sides where gaskets will be attached, are smoothly sanded.

All cilinders are out of the block, but cilinder #4 won't let go it's piston, so we're still working on that. If you have any ideas on how we should continue, please, also let us know via the forum. Except for oil, we've tried heating the cilinder. As expected, that didn't solve the problem.

The other pistons are taken apart, the cilinders show only minimal wear, so little infact, we can't feel the unevenness.

Next time we'll take the valves out of the head, and clean the head the same way as the block. But first we'll need to make a valve removal tool.

Removing the valves

Thanks to the welding equipment of Ilja, we were able to create this valve removal/insert tool. It works great, as shown in the other picture, the valves were removed. We've cleaned the head, and polished it's aluminium, just like the rest of the engine. It still has the casting-look, but it reflects the sun like a mirror. Basically, it's just really clean.

Sanded valves & open gearbox

We've sanded the valves, the result is shown in the "before versus after" picture on the right. We're not sure if it's really necessary to grind the valves with the valve grinder of a friend of ours, since the valves and the head still have a perfect fit. If you have any comment on this, please be so kind to post a message.

We've also taken the gearbox apart, for cleaning, and to look if the synchromeshes look allright. They do, so we don't need to replace these. Some parts of the gearbox are degreased, other are still waiting for us. We've posted a message on the forum, since we're not sure how to continue on one of the axes.

Piston #4 out of its cilinder

The same way we got the head of, after quite a while, we've now extruded piston number 4 out of it's cilinder. Ilja had a very bright moment and came up with this solution, and the results are marvellous. Both the cilinder and the piston are in good shape, considering their previous conditions. The pistond rings were stuck insipde the piston, and didn't survive their exit. Since we need new ones anyway, it doesn't matter. The piston was sandblasted where needed, and is, like the other 5, in good shape. The cilinder needs some work, but so do the rest. In other words, so far so good!

Polishing and mounting the valves

After placing the crankshaft back, we've cleaned the valves, and polished them. The result is clearly visible, especially on the cilinder head side. Very noticable is the grinding sound disappearing during the proces. Seven out of twelve valves are put back in position, which is quite a patient task. After a couple, we developped a feeling for placing the valve cotters.

For next time, we need to mount all valves, and hopefully by that time we have ordered and received all the parts we need to refit the engine. If so, we can mount the cilinders and the pistons.

Thanx for the helping hand, Matthijs

Gearbox assembly

We went to Aachen with our gearbox to Hein Brandt. They said the gearbox is in 'mint' condition. So we changed all the oil seals and put it back together.

Alfa Romeo 2600

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